This invention relates to a composite heavy duty wheel, such as used on certain ground vehicles and aircraft.
Composite wheels have certain advantages over metallic wheels in the area of weight reduction, fatigue life and operational life. Composite wheels also provide greater safety by reducing the accident rate due to wheel failure.
Prior art composite wheels have been made with laminated layers of material or by wet winding filaments on a mandrel. Such wheels are not entirely suitable for high torsion loads in heavy equipment which occur during the braking operation. Also, these wheels are normally limited to use with wheel temperatures below 300.degree. F. There are no known composite wheels that will withstand the high temperatures and high torsional loads developed by the braking mechanism of a large moving vehicle.